In Davao, it took a son of God—and therefore Jesus Christ’s younger brother—to erase all traces of positive reputation, efficiency and credibility from the national civilian police organization, the Philippine National Police.
They only have to scour 30 hectares of land, use a fine-tooth comb if need be, to ferret out Pastor Apollo Quiboloy from his hiding place, probably somewhere underground. The police have all sorts of modern equipment and tools, including sniffing dogs, ground-penerating radar, sensors for human heartbeats, etc. Yet they still cannot find the wanted religious leader to serve him the warrants issued by two courts for child abuse and human trafficking.
With millions of pesos in intelligence funds, with the help of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the National Bureau of Investigation, the PNP is still clueless as to Quiboloy’s whereabouts. This, after two massive battalion-size operations launched against the pastor in July and August.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil vowed his cops will continue to search the compound until they get the religious leader, which the government has called a “fugitive” without getting conviction in a court of law.
The ongoing police operations in the compound of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) have resulted in a series of violent confrontations between the pastor’s followers and the police, the embarrassing confusion in the designation of police chiefs in Davao province, Davao City, and the Davao regional police office, and charges and counter charges of human rights violations between the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte, his daughter Vice President Sara on one hand, and the PNP-Department of Interior and Local Government of President Bongbong Marcos on the other.
It was like in the movies, this scene last week when more than 2,000 policemen in combat uniform with their long firearms swooped down on the sprawling KOJC compound, looking for the pastor and his companions who were named in the warrants of arrest. The Kingdom’s religious members of course claimed that their leader was being persecuted by the government, and mounted whatever physical resistance that they could muster. Still, no signs of Pastor Quiboloy and the PNP’s reputation as a fighting force, a security organization to “serve and protect” the nation continued to deteriorate by the day.
Also just like in the movies, subplots have emerged—conjectures touted by PNP officials such as the KOJC compound has a tunnel or a series of tunnels just like in Gaza where Quiboloy could be hiding, and these structures could be used in his escape.
Here is where the embarrassing part of the whole scenario lies—the PNP should at least have a basic map of the place, photographs taken from camera drones, etc. Where are all the millions of intelligence funds given to the PNP, the DILG, the Napolcom and other security bodies and offices by the national budget? These funds should have been used for intelligence and surveillance which have become very important in this campaign to get Quiboloy.
There is no question that the police operation against the KOJC in Davao is an “overkill,” as even Sen. Imee Marcos pointed this out. But to say that this is not politically motivated, as Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said, is of course false. Bersamin is lying through his teeth. Quiboloy is the No. 1 supporter of the Dutertes, now considered as the principal rival of the Marcos-Romualdez group.
It could be that Quiboloy might join the long list of celebrities that the security forces failed to arrest—Arnie Teves, Alice Guo, Jose Alvarez, the top leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, etc.
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